Southland influence at Paris Opera

In 1992, when Gerard Mortier arrived in Austria as new director of the Salzburg Festival, he turned for inspiration to Los Angeles, enticing Esa-Pekka Salonen and Peter Sellars into the lair of the late Herbert von Karajan for a new production of Messiaen’s “Saint Francois d’Assise” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the pit. Now, Mortier -- who spent 10 years revolutionizing Salzburg and is in the middle of a three-year residency in Germany running the RuhrTriennale festival -- is scheduled to take over the Paris Opera in 2005.

One guess who will be regulars at the Bastille, the company’s main opera house.

For his first season, Mortier will present a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” conducted by Salonen, directed by Sellars and designed by the Long Beach video artist Bill Viola, though with the company’s own orchestra.

The exciting news for local Wagnerians is that Salonen and the Philharmonic will try out the production first in concert form in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Even so, Air France would do well to set up an opera run from L.A. to Paris. Mortier has obtained commitments from both Salonen and Los Angeles Opera music director Kent Nagano to each conduct a production a year at the Bastille for five seasons.

-- Mark Swed